Pep Williams is an American fine art and street photographer, director, entrepreneur, and former professional skateboarder who grew up in South Central Los Angeles, California.
He is one of the only photographers to have ever been granted access into the California State Prison System where he created a series of inmate portraitures entitled, Behind Bars.
From this music business background he later transitioned into photographing artists such as; Chris Brown, Nick Cannon, Offset, and Suicidal Tendencies.
[8][9][10] A third-generation Dogtown skater, Williams started skateboarding in 1975 at the age of four and throughout his youth was influenced by important Californian skaters of the time such as; close friends Jay Adams, Christian Hosoi, Aaron Murray, Natas Kaupas, Julien Stranger, Eric Dressen, and Kareem Campbell.
[11][8] Being a visible skateboarder led to modeling work for his sponsors in international fashion shows and photoshoots, where Williams was often surrounded by highly talented photographers, whom he observed acutely.
More jobs followed, but as he came into his own as a photographer, he found himself rapidly tiring of the fashion world and began to focus on fine art portraiture, mostly of his friends; skaters, musicians, artists, drug dealers and gang members.
Moments before the image was taken Jay was giving advice on life and relationships to a young girl sitting on the ground next to him.